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middleofsomewhere2019-09-16 05:34 am
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2019-09-16 05:34 am
Entry tags:
Onward: Orange
It takes the best part of the first couple of days to get the city fully evacuated. The merchants and younger farmers get going first, leaving the more stubborn and older citizens to be helped up the cliff and to the hills beyond. The longer they leave it the more dangerous the city gets, they will meet more goblins. The goblins try and stop the evacuation, some are clearly trying to sabotage the city itself, attempting to light fires and wreck houses.
Once they have climbed the cliff path they will hopefully not meet many goblins on their travels but it is still a risk. There are caves and copses to spend the night and small game to hunt if anyone can get far enough away from the herds. Most of the problems come from those they escort, it’s hard to get herds over boggy marsh land and the going is slow.
(OOC: This is designed to be a catchall event post for Orange team for threads after the initial fight until the final challenge/approach to Um'i'les on day 11)
Once they have climbed the cliff path they will hopefully not meet many goblins on their travels but it is still a risk. There are caves and copses to spend the night and small game to hunt if anyone can get far enough away from the herds. Most of the problems come from those they escort, it’s hard to get herds over boggy marsh land and the going is slow.
(OOC: This is designed to be a catchall event post for Orange team for threads after the initial fight until the final challenge/approach to Um'i'les on day 11)
Rescuing people... with definite preference for his son first
At least he wants to make sure his son doesn't get trapped inside. If they rescue some people, that's excellent, but it's not exactly his priority.
\o/
The smoke varies from thin and annoying to thick and choking, all the way up and down the levels and the halls. Curufin is leading people down one of these passageways and the people tell him where the next exit is. He lets them go ahead, and suddenly he turns and sees his father coming down the hall after him.
"Father! Thank you for coming. I'm trying to find whoever's stuck or lost in this building and get them out."
Suddenly a sound of gasping comes from a nearby door. Curufin tries it and finds it locked, and kicks it in. There are two adults, a man and a woman, lying on the floor. The smoke is so thick in here that they could be unconscious or dying. Curufin picks up one person, slings him over his shoulders, and waits for his father to pick up the other.
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Fëanor curses mentally careful not to accidentally broadcast his irritation so that his son would hear him. This is all fairly idiotic. Why would Curufin even care for those people? Fëanor doesn't wish them death but risking his life for them...
There he is.
Relief washes over him but they are not safe yet. The air is thick with smoke and poisonous. The fire is raging all around them. Fëanor doesn't have the chance to reply when Curufin kicks in the nearby door and finds the people inside. Fëanor follows him by picking up the woman. She's limp but alive. Unconscious? Probably. Or dying but not dead yet. That can change fast if they don't take both of them out now. He takes the off the damp cloth he used to cover his face and puts it over the woman's nose and mouth.
"Less talking, Curufin. Move!"
He doesn't like that cracking sound that he hears. Let's just hope that's not one of the structural supports.
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When Fëanor lifts the woman up and orders his son to get moving, Curufin obeys.
He hears that cracking sound, too, and would be alarmed if his bloodsteam weren't already so filled with the positive form of adrenaline. But his calculating mind begins to map out where the sound is coming from and what it portends.
As he goes down the hall, he thumps with his fist on each door and shouts, "Come out, if there's anybody in there! We know the way out! We'll help you."
The other people around them begin to do the same, and they pull a few more people out of the rooms and carry them if they can't walk.
Fëanor is now leading, and he knows how he got in, so that will be the way out.
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Fëanor would have a hard time telling how many times the feats of his son almost made his heart stop but still he can find no fault in it. Even if he wanted. He doesn't. Treating impossible odds as a challenge and not a deterrent. That's something he himself did too many times to count. There can be no doubt where Curufin's recklessness comes from.
So there are no complaints when he leads the group down the smoke-filled staircase and out of the building. Retracing the route that got him there in the first place.
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Though he's relieved when they find that the staircase Fëanor came up is filled only with smoke and not yet with fire. When they get out of the building, Curufin counts the people to make sure they're all there, and he's pretty sure they are. He gives his dad a look of gratitude.
And then one of the rescuees suddenly looks around and says, "Where's my husband? Did anybody see my husband?"
"Was he with us?" asks Curufin.
She answers, "He said he was going back to get a friend of his who lives down the hall from us. That was just before you arrived and said you'd find the way out, and I thought my husband and his friend would join us, but they're not here!" The woman was frantic.
"Okay, you stay here, I'll go and find them," says Curufin, promptly.
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He tried to make sure they didn't lose anyone on the way so exactly such an outcome could be avoided but he can't do anything about a man who got himself lost before they even showed up. What a nuisance...
"Where that friend lives exactly? Which floor? Which side of the building? The more exact the location you can give us, the faster we get there." His tone may be harsh but they'll need every piece of that information. There's no time for aimlessly wandering around when the building is about to collapse.
The faster they get to them, the more probable is that both men will be still alive when they find them. If they find them at all. None of this he'll tell the woman. She's panicked enough already.
"I'm going with you," he says turning to Curufin. As if this wasn't obvious.
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"Got it!" says Curufin. Describe a map and he can see it in his mind, and anyway, he's already noticed the layout, as the woman says. "I came up the west staircase, myself. That one's no longer passable." He looks over his shoulder and can see smoke coming out of some of the windows near the top of the building, and there is smoke in the stairwell they just came down, but not as much.
He smiles at his father. "I had the feeling you were coming with me. Let's get going!"
And he races into the building again. His feet pound the stairs. Up on the level they came from, he races around the corner and bangs on the designated door. No answer, so he kicks it down.
Inside, the ceiling is glowing with fire, and the smoke is heavy. He can just barely see two unconscious figures on the floor. One of the men seems to have tried to lift the other but lost consciousness from smoke inhalation, even as the first had already done. Luckily for the Elves, they are so hardy that they can breathe smoke longer than a mortal could without losing consciousness.
Curufin disentangles the men and hefts one of them on his shoulders.
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That's the only answer Curufin gets but it's certainly not all that Fëanor could have said. They don't have time enough for lengthy discussions.
But it is exactly time that he had, that made him realize that he's quite alright with playing a supportive role, letting his son lead this time as they sprint through eerie scenery of smoke and fire. The whole interior of the building barely resembling what it once was.
Alright, until the whole structure starts disintegrating under their feet...
"Now we run."
The elves may be light but now they are encumbered so there is a time, or two, or five when a weakened floorboard snaps under the weight of one of them and their unconscious cargo. Many times Fëanor helps his son and as many when Curufin helps him in turn.
The stairway holds the longest but even it is now filled with choking smoke and the wood of the stairs creak as they descend.
They leap outside moments before the building finally yields to the inferno it consumes it. The highest floors are first to go but it's not long before the whole structure is no more than a pile of flaming debris sending dust and ash everywhere around.
Fëanor left the man he was carrying, that friend that was a reason for their last minute rescue, in care of his own and seeks out his son. He puts his hand on Curufin's shoulder and nods with a smile.
That was crazy but we made it out in time. Good job.
It's good that he can rely on their wordless communication, mind to mind, because he's not going to be speaking a lot very soon. At least not until he stops coughing out soot and ash from his lungs. And heals some of the burns. He might be spirit of fire but breathing literal fire is not healthy even for him and at that last flight of stairs? Even the very air was burning.
The fresh air never tasted better even if stings a little.
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There will be time for those lengthy discussions later, sitting in the dining car and talking over coffee or tea. Curufin would welcome that.
It was his father who taught him how to lead, and that ability stood him in good stead when he and his brothers migrated to East Beleriand and spent almost five centuries blocking Morgoth's Orcs from entering the Pass of Aglon or Maglor's Gap, and guarding the plans of Lothlann and Ard-galen.
Carrying their burdens, the two of them make their way out of the disintegrating building. Those moments when the floorboards try to collapse under one or the other of them are heart-pounding moments, but each moves so swiftly to help the other that nobody goes through the boards and falls into ruin. As they finally run down the east staircase and get away from the structure, it begins to fall into itself, and at last there are only flames roaring upwards from a huge heap of rubble.
Curufin deposits the man he was carrying, and the woman runs up and starts doing CPR on him. The man suddenly revives, coughing and wheezing, and his wife and their friends take care of him.
Meanwhile, Curufin coughs and wheezes too, and when he feels his father's hand on his shoulder, he turns and smiles. As neither of them can speak well, he speaks mind-to-mind, wordlessly, to express his love and gratitude, and also his relief that they didn't manage to kill themselves with this gambit! And then, of course he has to add, It was crazy, but then, we're crazy, right? His smile is bright in his sooty face.
It's true they're both a little singed. Nothing like running through fire to get your adrenaline going.
Now what? Shall we get these people up the cliff path?
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That's not even a joke. A statement of fact rather. Totally crazy. That was literally insane what they did there. Fëanor would rather not think how much risk they were taking. Either of them could have perished in the flames. There are no words in the tongues of elves nor men that could express how relieved his that they didn't.
He pulls his son into a hug. Everything else must wait. The world might be on fire, goblin armies upon them or whatnot, but he needs a moment to cherish the simple fact that they did escape and are both still alive. Only after he can go back to what one teenager in a dramatic cape so aptly described at the very beginning of their mission as "that whole rescuing thing".
I see no other way. There's nothing left here but ruin.
Then there's that tiny obstacle of communicating those instructions to the people while unable to speak. Surely, they will figure something out.
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Curufin is apt to joke about things that aren't funny. Being a firefighter had been equally crazy, and doing the rescue work of a firefighter but without the tanker truck and the hoses -- that was just plain mad. But Curufin wasn't sorry they had tried it.
He feels himself pulled into a hug and wraps his arms around his father and holds him tightly. It is indeed a good moment, this moment of being glad not to have been burned alive.
All right, then, we'll use handsigns and handwaving. Smile.
He goes to the nearest of the rescuees and points towards the man who is still lying on the ground recovering, indicating that somebody needs to carry him up the path, and that if nobody is able to, Curufin will carry him. Somehow, the people understand him. A strong man steps out of the small crowd and picks up the coughing man and starts walking, followed by that man's wife and also, the friend who had lost consciousness in his apartment. He seems to have recovered faster, and now he follows, unable to speak but offering comfort to the husband and wife.
Curufin looks around and makes sure nobody else needs carrying, and then he gestures to the group to start up the path. Then he walks beside his father. Ugh, we're going to need some burn salve.
wrap here too? rescued bunch of people, didn't burn alive, the good end :)
Yes, and quite a lot of it, I'm afraid.
He tries to laugh but what comes out sounds more like a series of hisses...and it hurts. Not surprising but not pleasant either.
I hope that others had a safer passage.
Not exactly.
And we should check on the rest of your team once we reach the summit.
He has sent Reigen with the first group of shepherds so hopefully, the man should be fine. He hasn't seen the kids, Conan, Eva, Kaito, for a while but he's almost sure they didn't linger either. And the spider... of course, the spider was there too.
Yes, good place to end, and a good ending! XD
We'll check the first aid kits when we get back and see what supplies are in them.
He listens to his father's laugh and smiles, though he doesn't try to laugh in response. He pats his father on the shoulder and grins proudly at him.
We did kind of jump into the most dangerous possible situation, and I don't see any of my teammates around here, so I guess they chose to help out in less dangerous situations. Yes, we'll see what happened to the rest of the Orangies after we get up to the top of the cliffs.
The rest of them were not as crazy as the two Fëanorians; not even the spider. They'd all be up there somewhere, and they'd all be safe.